ArabTRUST Life Members

Alistair ‘Breeks’ Brodie

Alistair ‘Breeks’ Brodie is the one and only ArabTRUST Life Member. Breeks stood down from the ArabTRUST Board in February 2010 after 8 years of service running the merchandise fund raising operation.

Breeks was given the Life Membership honour in recognition of his outstanding and immeasurable contribution to ArabTRUST.

Breeks was a Foundation Member and had raised a massive amount of money during his time being in charge of the ‘Tangerine Trading Posts’ in the George Fox and Eddie Thompson stands, with his wife Stella always by his side.

His hard work was also recognised by Dundee United at the 2010 Hall of Fame dinner. Having raised over £75,000 for ArabTRUST and to recognise this contribution, Breeks was presented with a bottle of Centenary Whisky by United Chairman Stephen Thompson and an invitation to be match day guests of the Club before chants of 'speech' meant that Breeks had little choice but to take to the stage to say a few words.

For a man who was unprepared, he immediately broke into a passionate and articulate address about the importance of ArabTRUST and was keen to impress just how much ArabTRUST do for United.

He was on fine form and delivered the best speech of the evening. He re-joined his wife Stella back at the ArabTRUST table to a deserved applause becoming of a man who has given an immeasurable amount of his time, effort, passion and skill to ArabTRUST.

He now devotes his time and energy to this second-hand record shop and ticket agent, a Dundonian institution. ArabTRUST still holds a special place in his heart, as Groucho's still sells ArabTRUST merchandise and event tickets.

Born in 1953 and brought up in Edinburgh, as a young lad he spent alternate Saturdays at Easter Road or Tynecastle until he was old enough to go and see his team – Glasgow Rangers.

Around his late teens/early twenties he found the sectarianism that surrounded supporting his team wasn’t to his liking so he made a decision to quit as a supporter and became more involved with music, moving to Dundee by accident in 1976 and opening Groucho's.

He got friendly with one of his regular customers, Bowie fanatic John Reilly, and started supporting his mate’s team. Always working on a Saturday, he was only able to go to midweek games so has great memories of United v Roma and none of United v Morton.

When he was invited to join ArabTRUST, he saw there were opportunities to raise funds via merchandising and all the years as a shopkeeper would pay off as the range of goods increased as did the profits going back into ArabTRUST.

ArabTRUST Honorary Members

Eddie Thompson, The late Chairman assumed control of Dundee United in September 2002. A well-known United supporter, he had a lengthy association with the Club being responsible for the VG shirt sponsorship in the 80s.

He was also a founding member of the Dundee United Business Club and was a member of the SPL Board. He was founder and Chief Executive of the convenience store chain Morning, Noon & Night before its sale to Scotmid in 2004 and was involved with the Scottish Retail Consortium, CBI Scotland and the British Retail Consortium.

He was awarded the OBE in June 2005, in recognition of his services to the Scottish grocery industry and his work as Chairman of the Scottish Retail Consortium.

Thanks to Eddie’s generosity he donated 10 shares to enable ArabTRUST to get on the first rung of the shareholding ladder. Eddie passed away on 15th October 2008

Ivan Golac, The appointment of the former Yugoslav international to the manager’s job at Tannadice in July 1993 stunned Scottish football. Of all the Premier Division clubs, Dundee United would have been the last choice of most people to break the mould by introducing the country’s first overseas manager. It was a bold decision by Chairman Jim McLean and his fellow directors and was rewarded with another mould being broken ten months later when Golac brought the Scottish Cup to Tannadice for the first time in 1994.

Golac had had a successful career in his native country as well as a spell with Southampton. Managerially he had earned his spurs with Partizan Belgrade, so he arrived with sound credentials. Unfortunately, Scottish football – and, as it turned out those in charge of Dundee United – were not ready to accept quite such a radical departure from the norm. Golac’s unconventional training methods and his devil-may-care comments to the media caused concern. The Cup triumph was almost certainly due to his ability to motivate the players for the big occasion, but he proved unable to repeat the act when it came to the bread-and-butter of the League.

In his first season, United finished only two points clear of relegation, a fact lost amid the euphoria of the Cup win. However, the following season’s form was never convincing and it was clear that he did not command universal support. United’s Premier Division status was under threat and when defeat at Hearts broke their hold on the Scottish Cup, the board acted quickly and Golac left the club by mutual consent.

After less than two years, Ivan Golac was gone, but he will not be easily forgotten. Whatever their opinion of his reign as a whole – and opinions differ greatly – Golac did deliver the Holy Grail which many Arabs had all but given up hope of seeing: tangerine and black ribbons attached to the Scottish Cup.

Jimmy Briggs, signed for the club in June 1955 from St. Mary’s Youth Club. He was the son of ‘Toddler’ Briggs, a nickname his dad had picked up during his junior playing days.'Gunboat' made his first team debut on 14 September 1955 against Forfar at Tannadice and with his no nonsense style of play, went on to become an important member of the team that established Dundee United as a leading force in Scottish football.

After fifteen faithful seasons with the club, he was released in 1970 and went on to join Montrose.

He was inducted in to the 2008 Dundee United Hall of Fame. Jimmy passed away on 9th April 2011.